Cyrus R. Vance

New York - Cyrus R. Vance, who resigned as President Carter's secretary of state over an ill-fated
attempt to save American hostages from Iran, died Saturday. He was 84.

Vance died at Mt. Sinai Medical Center after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, said his son,
Cyrus R. Vance Jr. He said he did not know the cause of death.

Heading the State Department was the highlight of Vance's career, but his duties on behalf of
presidents, the Congress and the United Nations spanned more than three decades. He used his
peacemaking skills to ease conflicts in foreign lands, racially torn American cities and even corporate
boardrooms.

Quiet and self-effacing, Vance was a study in contrasts with Henry Kissinger, his flamboyant
predecessor at the State Department.

Vance's politics were far more liberal than Kissinger's, and his political leanings often put him at odds
with Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Vance enjoyed several successes during his early period as secretary of state but suffered setbacks
later on. He played a key role in normalizing relations with China, winning approval for new Panama
Canal treaties and helping negotiate a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

But Vance's tenure also saw an expansion of Soviet influence in a number of areas as well as the
collapse of the pro-American monarchy in Iran and the seizure of American hostages in Tehran.

When Carter approved a military operation for the rescue of the hostages in April 1980, Vance
resigned because he felt he could not support such a plan. His skepticism proved prescient; the
operation ended in disaster.

One of his most difficult diplomatic undertakings took place long after he left the State Department,
when U. N. Secretary Javier Perez de Cuellar asked him in 1991 to try to end the fratricidal war in the
former Yugoslavia. He helped achieve a cease fire in Croatia but peace eluded him in Bosnia.

His strategy in Bosnia was the subject of considerable controversy. Vance felt strongly that negotiations
were the
only way to halt Serbian
advances, rejecting critics
who argued that his tactics
amounted to appeasement, of
an aggressor.

He quit in despair after
struggling with the Bosnian
conflict for almost a year.

It wasn't long before he
plunged into an entirely different
kind of peacemaking:
resolving rival creditor claims
involving a debt-ridden commercial
real estate firm with
extensive holdings in New
York City. Vance helped the
parties reach a settlement in
July 1993.

Vance retired several years
later, when Alzheimer's disease
began to curtail his activities,
his son said Saturday.

"He was working full-tilt
until he couldn't anymore," he
said.

Cyrus Roberts Vance was
born in Clarksburg, W. Va., on
March 27, 1917. After graduating
with honors from Yale Law
School in 1942, he entered the
U.S. Navy, serving as a gunnery
officer in the Pacific during
World War II.

A year after his discharge
from the Navy in 1946, he married
Grace Elsie Sloane, of a
prominent family specializing
in home furnishings. He joined
the New York law firm of Simpson,
Thatcher and Bartlett,
with which he maintained a
relationship for decades.

Vance entered civilian government
service for the first
time in 1957 when he served as
special counsel for the Senate
Armed Service subcommittee
on preparedness.

Vance became general
counsel, for the Defense
Department in 1961 during the
Kennedy administration,
working closely with then-
Defense Secretary Robert
McNamara.

He was appointed secretary
of the Army in 1962, and in
January 1964 President John-
son named him deputy secretary
of defense. He became
known in that role for his
hawkish views on Vietnam.
During his three years of
service as the No. 2 figure at
the Pentagon, Vance was dispatched
by the White House on
trouble shooting missions to
Panama and the Dominican
Republic.

He left the Defense Department
for health reasons in
June 1967 but agreed at Johnson's
request to go to Detroit to
help assess the cause of race
riots in the city. By November,
he was leading a negotiating
effort that helped head off a
war between Greece and
Turkey over Cyprus.

Over the next few months,
he went on a peacekeeping
mission to Korea and helped
develop a peace-keeping plan
for Washington, D.C. following
the death of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. During the last nine
months of the Johnson presidency,
Vance served as deputy
chief of the U.S. delegation to
the Paris peace talks.

Before Johnson left office,
he presented Vance with the
Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian award. "He has
always placed his country
before himself," Johnson said
of Vance. "He has served the
United States with remarkable
skill. He is a man of energy,
uncompromising intellect and
remarkable wisdom."

In 1975, Vance and social
scientist Daniel Yankelovich
founded Public Agenda, a nonpartisan,
nonprofit public
opinion research and citizen
education organization based
in New York City.